FAD Family Pets - Adolescent Classes

  

FAD Family Pets Classes are scheduled as needed to support local clients with teaching their dog basic skills and manners. These classes are often divided into 3 categories:

• Beginner Adolescents - For dogs between the ages of 6-18 months old who did not complete a puppy class.
• Intermediate Adolescents - For dogs between the ages of 6-24 months old who completed the Pawsitively Puppy Class or Private Session Package.
• Advanced Community Activities - For dogs of any age that are working on expanding skills and manners at community events and pet friendly businesses.

All classes begin at the Yooper Paws Training Center and may move out into the community as needed.

We often mix and match clients of Yooper Paws & Pawsitively Pups for these classes based on the needs of the dogs attending. Trainers will often be a mix of Penny Beeman, Tammy Carlson, and Athena Grailer.

FAD Intermediate Class

During the summer the Intermediate Class takes place in the form of Group Walks so that we can practice the skills learned in puppy class and/or private sessions while enjoying some outside time.
Each week we will learn a new skill, a new game, a new form of enrichment, and how to apply reinforcement effectively. This allows for a more flexible schedule to accommodate weather, vacations, and summer holidays.

Beginner Group Walks are scheduled for Tuesdays & Thursdays at 6 PM & Saturday at 11 AM

Check out the Group Walks page and schedule directly with Penny each week.

Announcing the FAD Beginners Class for Small Dogs

The next FAD Family Pets Class is designed for small dogs under 25 lbs

begins on Monday, July 7th at 4PM

Yooper Paws Training Center

611 N. Hooper St. Kingsford, MI 49802

This class runs every week for 6 weeks for $200 per dog.

Adolescent dogs often struggle most with distractions that are beyond our control. This can be other people and/or dogs we meet while out on a walk, wild animals or pets that pop up unexpectedly, or any of a million other things that our dogs might react to. This class is designed to help teach your dog the value of focusing on their person more then the environment by using games to build up the reinforcement history. At the same time, owners will be learning about various positive reinforcement training techniques to train various behaviors they want their dogs to enjoy repeating.

Students should plan to arrive about 15 minutes prior to class and do a walk outside the building to help them calm down a little before entering class. Please keep your dog at a safe distance away from other dogs at this time and enter the building one at a time. Be prepared to clean up after your dog! Disposal bags will be available inside if needed.

To register fill out the form below or contact Penny Beeman & Tammy Carlson

This class will be limited to 8 students so please register ASAP and make your payment via PayPal or Venmo to reserve your spot in class.

If you prefer to pay in cash please email yooperpaws@gmail.com to make arrangements.

You will be contacted by one of our trainers within 48 hours of filling out this form.

If you are not contacted by a trainer, please reach out to yooperpaws@gmail.com for assistance.

Here is the PayPal link for payment: https://www.paypal.me/YooperPaws

Here is the Venmo link for payment: https://venmo.com/YooperPaws

Payments must be received to reserve your spot in class.

A Fresh Start Workshop

 

Are you ready to get back to some foundation skills?

Do you want to build better teamwork?

Do you want a Winter Training Plan that is all set up for you?

Join our new winter workshop!

A Fresh Start to Dog Training!

This new winter workshop will be combining 3 Yooper Paws & Crazy2Calm projects into one great resource designed to help all dog owners no matter what their previous level of training, style of training, or relationship status is when they start the workshop.

A Fresh Start Workshop is designed to showcase how positive reinforcement based training has been used to create a teamwork based approach to dog training. Each week there will be a topic of the week with 3 levels of games you can play with your dog. Every Monday, Workshop Members will receive a lesson with basic info and training tips for the topic including a game to play. Mid-week you will receive another lesson that will help you expand the skills you began practicing at the beginning of the week. 

A Fresh Start Workshop has been created for clients who have adopted a new dog or are starting over with positive reinforcement based training with an emphasis on teamwork to enhance the canine behaviors. Teams with advanced training, including the Service Dog Teams working with Crazy2Calm Canine Coaches will benefit from practicing these foundation skills to enhance communication and partnership in day to day life. The workshop is designed to provide you with a simple to use training plan, making it easy for you to stay active in training all winter.

There will be 3 levels of games in each topic. The basic level will be designed for people who have never trained the skill in that topic. The intermediate level will be perfect for adolescents with some experience in the topic but need to build up to the next level. The advanced level is awesome for teams like Azul and I who just want to have some fun building engagement to keep our relationship strong. You get all 3 levels, so it's up to you to choose which level is perfect for your team every week. 

A Fresh Start Works is perfect for owner/dog teams aiming for a stronger relationship with their dog, creating skills that are helpful for all family pets to live a safe, calm, and happy lifestyle.

Sign Up Available on Patreon

Patreon is a membership based platform that allows you to pay a low monthly fee to participate. All you need to do is sign up for a Patreon account the join the Fresh Start Membership.

A Fresh Start Workshop is designed to take place over a 5 month time period so plan on being a member for at least 5 months. Still that is over $300 worth of resources for just $50!

Let us help you make that Fresh Start with your dog!

Sign up for your FREE Yooper Paws Membership now to get great updates about this workshop and some early learning resources.

Then beginning Nov 1st you can upgrade to the Fresh Start Membership to participate in the paid workshop for $10 per month. The workshop will officially begin on November 18th! 

FAQ Section

How long do I have access to the materials?

The Workshop will be released mid-November 2023 through March 2024. After that you can stay in the membership as long as you want for continued support.

Is there a trial period where a refund is available?

The membership based system allows you to pay $10 per month, cancelling at any time. If you don't enjoy the content you can simply cancel your membership. Therefore no refunds will be available for this membership. Your risk is only $10 to try it for a month!

What date will the membership be billed each month?

Patreon will automatically charge your card on the same day of the month you upgrade to a paid member. This means you can set your payment date based on something that will work for your budget. I have no control over this.

Please direct all other questions to yooperpaws@gmail.com.

FAD Family Pets Group Activities

 FAD Family Pets Group Activities are for current and previous clients to practice the skills they learned in classes and private sessions.

The FAD Family Pets Series contains 4 levels of classes to help family pets and working dogs become the best they can be.

In Private Sessions and Group Classes, families can learn the skills needed to teach dogs any basic skills and household manners following the FAD Family Pets Basic Class. Then adolescents, especially 10 months to 18 months, commonly struggle with impulse control which quickly gets them into trouble especially around other dogs. The FAD Family Pets Intermediate Class is designed specifically to help dogs of this age with some practice using distance away from the distractions to help them be successful. The Intermediate Class mixes training outside in the environment and inside in the Training Center to find the best distance for all the dogs in the class. Then FAD Family Pets Community Class takes that training "on the road" going to parks, community events, and pet friendly places where we can't really control all the distractions that are in the environment but can practice skills as a group to help our dogs succeed. Last but not least is the FAD Working Paws Class is the final class for families with dogs that will work in community places such as Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs.

Whew, that's a lot of FAD Classes! But sometimes people don't want all those classes, yet still want to practice the basic and intermediate skills around other dogs. 

To help people have some fun in an affordable way, we've created FAD Family Pets Games Nights & FAD Family Pets Games Groups!

 

The FAD Family Game Nights will be run between classes to offer clients a fun way to practice the skills they've already learned. We will do a series of 4 Game Nights for a low price of $100, making this just $25 per night! During Game Nights I'll be hosting a series of games and challenges to help teams practice the basic skills of walking nice on a leash, settle on a mat around distractions, enter/exit buildings or the car, calmly and safely, while building speed and reliability in following the cues despite the distractions in the room. This is designed to help clients who have taken the FAD Basic or Intermediate Classes.

The first FAD Family Game Nights series begins February 22nd and runs every Thursday beginning at 7pm for 4 weeks.  There is still time to sign up for this class! All you need to do is text Penny at 906-399-0548 to reserve your spot!

The FAD Family Games Groups will also be run between classes and can be scheduled any time we have 3-4 dogs that close to the same skill level and the games played will be adjusted based on the needs of the dogs in each group. The dates and times will also be selected based on the availability of those in the group. These will be 4 group sessions for $100, which breaks down to $25 per session!

I have 2 groups that will be starting soon! 

Tuesdays starting February 20th at 11am will be a FAD Games Group for easily distracted adolescents. This is going to be focusing on the very basic behaviors a family pet needs to be successful as a family members in distracting environments.

Mondays starting February 26th at 11am will be the FAD Working Paws Games Group for local Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs. This group will be pretty challenging! We will be focusing on extreme leash manners required for working dogs to succeed in public places, extended stays or settles, and perhaps even some off leash practice.

If you are interested in signing up for either of these groups, please reach out to me ASAP to sign up via text at 906-399-0548.

Mondays starting February 26th

Watch for pictures and videos from these activities on our social media pages and groups!

Learning on a Longline

With the Longline Workshop coming up this weekend, I wanted to take a moment to share some important information about longlines and why we as dog owners need to become more skilled at using them successfully.

Picture of Azul wearing a dual clip harness and 12 ft longline and Finnegan wearing a collar and 10 ft line, both sniffing a very interesting spot along the side of a quiet road.

In case you are new to Yooper Paws of Love and/or the idea of using a longline to walk your dog, here are a few previous blogs that may find especially helpful before attending the workshop this weekend. 

First and foremost is making sure that your dog has the right gear to walk safely. Longlines come in many lengths from 15 ft to 50 ft. Personally, I make my own so I can make the length match the environment. For the purposes of this workshop, we will be looking at using a 15-20ft longline. Check out this post on Taking a Sniff-a-bout to learn more about choosing the correct gear and environments to practice with your longline.

It's also important to understand WHY we all should be taking a longline based sniff-a-bout with our dogs, daily if possible but at least a few times a week. Generally dogs walk at a much faster pace then us so it's unnatural for a dog to walk right beside their human for long distances. Longlines allow dogs to cover more ground, often moving side to side while sniffing which can greatly reduce the amount of time the dog is pulling to get from Point A to Point B. While we as humans, learn about our environment using our eyes and ears the most, our dogs learn about the environment using their nose first, then their ears. Check out this post on Environmental Processing to see how allow your dog to sniff can meet their needs and help to build their confidence in new environment. 

Understanding how scents impact your dog's ability to walk nicely on a leash and how you can use their love of scents to improve leash skills. Check out this post for more on Scents & Loose Leash Walking 

What the majority of my clients struggle with is how their dog acts when they see another person or dog while out on a walk. The dog might struggle with feeling unsafe or might want to greet the newcomer so badly that they loose control of themselves. Both are extreme emotions that often lead to barking, lunging, and pulling on the leash. This is the main focus of our Longline Workshop this weekend, to teach owners the basic skills they need for managing the leash around distractions before facing it a real life situation. Check out this blog, Introducing New Dogs Slowly to see a bit about the set up we will be using in Private Sessions and Mini-Group Sessions to help owners and dogs become more confident and/or less over-excited when seeing new dogs or people.

What to expect at the Longline Workshop

The Longline Workshop

This is going to be 2 hours of fun! You can sign up for a 15 minute longline management session, then you will be pointed in a direction towards your private practice space. There you can practice your skills and receive additional support from a Canine Coach if a challenge presents itself.

Sessions will take place April 15th from 1-3pm. All borrowed gear should be returned by 4pm when the supervised Longline Walks will end.

Sign up for your 15 minute management session here!

Your dog will need to be wearing a well fitting harness for this workshop. If they are prone to pulling, a dual clip attachment will help. If you need to borrow a harness or longline, please let us know in advance and we will do our best to match you with equipment that will work for you. Using a collar or head halter solo without a harness can lead to increased injury and should not be used with a longline any longer than 8-10ft.

(Absolutely no aversive collars are allowed at any Yooper Paws activities!)

15 Minute Training Sessions

We will start out by showing you some simple leash handling skills that show you the best way to control your longline without hurting either yourself or your dog. It's best to have 2 hands on your longline at all times, however we know that is not realistic. We therefore teach you how to decide which hand is going to be for strength and stopping power and which hand is going to be for taking up slack, letting out the line as needed, and sending gentle feedback down the line to your dog.

Faith & Joshua demonstrate basic longline skills with Echo.

Once the leash is comfortable in your hands, we will walk with you around our "safe" light distraction area to help you practice your skills with the longline and teach your dog how to respond to your body movements and changes. We will also go over a few different ways to reinforce your dog for making great choices such as returning to you instead of pulling toward a distraction or checking in with you when they feel safe. There are several low key games you can play with your dog to help them focus on either you or the environment your in more then focusing on the distraction. We will teach you a few of these games to help.

Then after your mini-training session, we will point you to an area for you to practice more skills. We will have 3 locations to choose from depending on your comfort level with the longline and your dog's comfort level around other dogs. The easy level will be a simple out and back walk by yourself in an area without other dogs. The middle level area will be a spot where you can see other dogs at a distance but keep a great enough distance that both dogs can remain calm. And the highest level area will be where you can easily see other dogs and follow the leader on a specific path, gradually reducing the distance between dogs. Dogs will get a turn to be the leader and the follower if there are enough people who choose the highest level. Obviously 15 minutes is not enough time to teach you all the skills you need to safely walk your dog around distractions if your dog has a previous history of struggling. The goal is not to create the perfectly skilled leash walking team in 15 minutes, but to lay the groundwork for leash skills that will improve your teamwork and make your walks more enjoyable for you and your dog!

Sign up for your 15 minute management session here! And if there isn't any time slots available contact us at yooperpaws@gmail.com to schedule your time.

Christmas Puppy Playdates

While Christmas is NOT the time to add a new puppy to your house, many people will anyways. Many others will be visiting with family and friends for the holidays and introducing dogs.

How that first introduction goes often depends on the ages and preferences of the dogs that you will be introducing. Your introductions might be smooth and easy if you're introducing 2 older, more relaxed dogs that love to make new friends then go do their own thing. However your introduction might be a lot harder when you have a hyper puppy and an older dog so the energy levels, training levels, and personal space boundaries are drastically different. Here are a few tips that can help you have a Calm Christmas when introducing new dogs.

• Introduce on neutral territory, outside if possible because it allows for more space. Meeting at a local park or walking trail can make a huge difference. This helps to prevent one dog from feeling like they need to protect their space.
• Go for a walk together where you can start further apart, on opposite sides of the street or field. This allows the dogs to take turns looking and observing the other dog without rushing them to meet face-to-face. Slowly close the gap, getting dogs closer and closer as their comfort level allows.
• Plan ahead and do the first introductions before the holiday activities begin! When festivities start, you'll likely be busy with family and friends. While you still want to supervise dogs at this time, you won't want to deal with introductions. Plan a day or two before the festivities where you can focus on your dogs getting to know each other so things will go much more smoothly the day of activities.
• Provide a safe space for both dogs to go separately for a place to chill. If you use a crate at home, take it with you. A blanket or mat in a corner can be helpful. Having a totally private room where a door can be closed for short periods of alone time to allow dog naps is awesome.
• Use gates and barriers as management tools to create safe spaces. It's very important to dogs in separate areas where dogs can observe each other safely when you can not supervise them properly. It might make it more challenging for the humans to move back and forth, but it's so worth it. This is especially important during meal times as a single scrap of food that drops on the floor can easily cause a fight.

Our dynamic for this holiday will be spending a very quiet Christmas at home. Then a few days later we will be in Illinois where we will have puppy Finnegan who now lives there plus my boys, Azul & Cam.  Finnegan and Azul have been learning to work together on multiple occasions before this time.  Cam on the other hand doesn't travel the best or greet new dogs the best. Yet we don't really have an option to leave him anywhere and he has visited the farm before and knows all the people who will be there. Our plan is to keep Finnegan and Cam in completely separate rooms of the house at all times with barriers in place. Finn already settles in an upstairs crate for naps so Cam will roam the house when Finn is napping and then stay in the comfy office located right off the kitchen when Finn is out in the house. Plus we have a large outside farm that the dogs can take turns going outside for decompression sniffing and alone time. Since Azul is comfortable around both Finn and Cam, he will be able to go back and forth with both dogs depending on where he is most comfortable. It might be a bit of extra work managing all 3 dogs during holiday activities, but the early planning will make it so much better.

This is how an older dog teaches a young puppy how to play!

Azul is 2.5 (black) and Finnegan is 6 months old. Azul has played with tons of dogs of all sizes. Slow introductions in a secure area outside for off leash running to help them develop a secure relationship of trusting each other & several days of co-habitating helped them to be ready for this play session.

Watch how both dogs have a turn with heads on top, mouthing the other dog. Azul could easily be on top all the time, but he moves under to give Finn a chance to play attack. Whether Azul understands the importance of this or not, this action helps give Finn confidence around Azul.

Not all older dogs will play with puppies like this. Sometimes Azul would rather nap. And that's OK. Play is best when both dogs want to play!

Back up to Day 1

Azul was off leash inside the fence checking out all his favorite farm animals when Finnegan was brought out to the gate which provided a safe place for the dogs to sniff each other. Finnegan's owner is my son who knows how I train and introduce dogs. Issac has also been around Azul since the day I brought him home and was Azul's babysitter as a pup so they are very comfortable interacting with each other. Once initial greetings were done and Azul returned to saying hi to his farm friends, Finn was allowed into the secured area. Both dogs remained off leash with freedom to engage or disengage from the other dog and both Issac and I remained vigilant to watch for even the slightest hint that either dog was not enjoying their time in the environment. Both humans took opportunities to recall and engage with both dogs independently and together.

After about an hour of running the barnyard, the barn and other off leash areas, we headed into the house so the dogs could learn to share that space as well.  Azul was excited to see everyone, but then wanted to slow down for a nap. Finn of course was filled with puppy energy. So we positioned Azul on the corner of the couch where I could play with grandkids and still keep Finn from invading Azul's space. I'm not sure Azul got a good nap, but he did several short naps. And eventually Finn went to nap in his crate. 

** Calm Christmas Tip: It's extra important when you're visiting someone else's house, that all dogs have safe places to rest where other people and dogs will not invade their space! 

For more information about introducing dogs slowly using the FAD (Focus Around Distractions) Method, check out my post with Azul and Miss Willow.

Check out this 12 Dog Days of Christmas Post from our Fun Photo Challenge.

 

Focus Around Distractions In-Person Class

 Focus Around Distractions - Beginner Class

Announcing the Focus Around Distractions Class

Yooper Paws Training Center

611 N. Hooper St. Kingsford, MI 49802

Beginning March 2nd at 6pm

FAD Class runs 6 weeks for $200 per dog.

Adolescent dogs often struggle most with distractions that are beyond our control. This can be other people and/or dogs we meet while out on a walk, wild animals or pets that pop up unexpectedly, or any of a million other things that our dogs might react to. This class is designed to help teach your dog the value of focusing on their person more then the environment by using games to build up the reinforcement history. At the same time, owners will be learning about various positive reinforcement training techniques to train various behaviors they want their dogs to enjoy repeating.

This is a beginner level class for young dogs from 6 months to 2 yrs old with owners who want to move away from the demanding, corrective based training used by alpha dominance trainers and move more toward developing a relationship based on love, bonding, and trust. Each week we will learn a new skill, a new game, a new form of enrichment, and how to apply reinforcement effectively.

Class will take place on Thursdays at 6pm

at the Yooper Paws Training Center 

beginning on March 2nd 

and proceeding every week.

Students should plan to arrive about 30 minutes prior to class and do a walk outside the building to help them calm down a little before entering class. Please keep your dog at a safe distance away from other dogs at this time and enter the building one at a time. Be prepared to clean up after your dog! Disposal bags will be available inside if needed.

Please sign this Waiver before the first session! You may print it and bring it with you or email it before the session. Please let me know if you'd like me to bring a printed copy.

Google Doc: Dog Training Waiver

PDF: Dog Training Waiver

This class will be limited to 6 students so please register ASAP and make your payment via PayPal or Venmo to reserve your spot in class.

If you prefer to pay in cash please email yooperpaws@gmail.com to make arrangements.

You will receive an email within 48 hrs of registering if you have been accepted into this class. If you do not receive this email, please reach out to yooperpaws@gmail.com for assistance.

Here is the PayPal link for payment: https://www.paypal.me/YooperPaws

Here is the Venmo link for payment: https://venmo.com/YooperPaws

Payments must be received by to reserve your spot in class.